1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to agricultural equipment useful in rice levee construction and, more particularly, to an improved portable rice levee shaper and packer for the controlled, efficient and convenient shaping, packing and seeding of rice levees.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Rice levee farming requires the preparation of rice fields by the construction of levees which function to distribute and maintain a uniform flood of water from the highest to the lowest elevation in the field. Ideally, the levees will comprise (FIG. 1) mounds of earth having a width (a) of approximately 66 inches, the height (b) of which is approximately 24 inches above the bottom of a pair of furrows adjacent each side of the mound. Each furrow has a depth (c) of approximately 6 inches below the bay elevation (e) and a width (d) of approximately 27 inches. It is essential to successful rice farming that the levees be both located accurately and well constructed to achieve and regulate a uniform water depth within each bay between the levees.
The construction of rice levees is the most difficult task involved in rice production. The levees cannot be formed until the rice has been seeded and, after the rice is planted, there is a limited time to get the levees constructed and firmed before a rain occurs. Rice is most often planted in clay or clay loam soils which normally have poor internal drainage. Before a levee constructed of such soil will hold water it must be thoroughly packed and settled.
Heretofore, the most successful method for constructing rice levees has been the use of a disc levee plough and dual wheel tractor. As the levee plough is pulled through the field, the discs cause an accumulation of earth along the desired location of the levee. Normally, on heavy clay soils, at least four or five, and sometimes more, passes of the levee plough are required to achieve the desired height of approximately 24 inches for the levee. Thereafter, the dual rear tractor tires are repeatedly driven over the mound of earth in an attempt to compact the levee (FIG. 2).
However, in the formation of levees with a levee plow, the plow breaks the soil into large clods which make compaction and settlement of the levees very difficult, particularly when the dual rear tractor tires are used for that purpose. The resulting levee is an irregularly shaped and loosely packed mound of soil having weak spots in the form of low spots or gaps which cause rapid deterioration of the levee unless it is repaired (completed by hand with shovels in a laborious, costly and time consuming manner.
This prior art method for constructing rice levees is time consuming, inefficient and largely ineffective. The many passes with the levee plough required to accumulate the necessary soil creates an additional problem in the form of deep grooves adjacent each levee thereby making water management in each bay impossible without additional time consuming and costly soil relocation.
Hence, the prior method of shaping and packing rice levees is inefficient in the amount of time required, expensive because of the labor, equipment and fuel involved and finally does not produce a firm and uniformally shaped and packed a levee as needed for optimum yield rice farming.
Ideally, the construction of rice levees should be accomplished in an efficient manner utilizing relatively simple, mechanized equipment without the need for many passes of a levee plough to create a levee mound and thereafter many passes of dual tractor wheels in an attempt to compact the rice levee.